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Friday, July 20, 2012

An Original Jumble of Genres

What starts out as just another ordinary day for Lewis Nash comes to a screeching halt when someone blows his house up, killing his adopted father. Not long after that, he learns that his biological parents aren’t ordinary people like everyone else—they are Lord and Lady Shaper from planet Xor. What exactly is a Shaper, you ask? It’s a person who can change the shape of things around him, more or less. And Xor? Xor is a place where magicians and robots coexist, a world whose peace is threatened by the fearsome Realm Pirates. Ordinarily, the Lord and Lady Shaper would put a stop to that—only, they’ve recently gone missing. Now that he’s come of age, Lewis learns, the entire planet is counting on him to stop the Realm Pirates from taking over Xor with their wave of darkness—only here, the “darkness” is not only literal, but metaphorical.

Robots and Magicians? Does that make it fantasy, or science fiction? Maybe both. Yet fans of either will both enjoy this very original jumble of genres that touches on important themes without getting too serious for young readers. Recommended for Ages 9-12.